That one has a power supply to plug in though, it's not bus powered. I like the bus powered for keeping things tidy I guess, and ease of storage if one doesn't use it regularly.

The speed thing is over rated IMO. I burn a lot of DVDs, 100s over the years, and even more CDs. Being able to burn that fast, and getting a successful burn are two different matters though. My 2 Pioneer internals go to 16x but I never burn past 4x or 8x for reliability. I've found that burning at max gives too many coasters on the 4 different pioneer drives I've burned through over the years. I use good name brand blanks too.

I guess if one was doing production burning all day or something it would be worth going 16x and getting a few coasters to save the 5 minutes longer it takes to burn 8x.

The Matshˇta in my iMac can never burn any disc max, I have always had to choose 4x. It doesn't have much use on it either, it's always been that way. The elderly couple I got the machine from didn't even own any blanks. I usually just take it to the old G4 with the reliable Pioneer drives.

Well iMacsoontobe, you should have enough ammo to make a decision as to what suits your needs.

For the few times a year he says he would use it I wouldn't recommend replacing the internal anyway. He doesn't want to take the iMac apart if remember right so it would be well over $200 to take it in to have it done. I would charge $120 plus the drive which is around the standard labor charge to do that job.

Edited by Reboot (07/26/1104:50 PM)Edit Reason: Took out the stuttering. :-D

For the few times a year he says he would use it I wouldn't recommend replacing the internal anyway. He doesn't want to take the iMac apart if remember right so it would be well over $200 to take it in to have it done. I would charge $120 plus the drive which is around the standard labor charge to do that job.

That one has a power supply to plug in though, it's not bus powered. I like the bus powered for keeping things tidy I guess, and ease of storage if one doesn't use it regularly.

The speed thing is over rated IMO. I burn a lot of DVDs, 100s over the years, and even more CDs. Being able to burn that fast, and getting a successful burn are two different matters though. My 2 Pioneer internals go to 16x but I never burn past 4x or 8x for reliability. I've found that burning at max gives too many coasters on the 4 different pioneer drives I've burned through over the years. I use good name brand blanks too.

I guess if one was doing production burning all day or something it would be worth going 16x and getting a few coasters to save the 5 minutes longer it takes to burn 8x.

The Matshˇta in my iMac can never burn any disc max, I have always had to choose 4x. It doesn't have much use on it either, it's always been that way. The elderly couple I got the machine from didn't even own any blanks. I usually just take it to the old G4 with the reliable Pioneer drives.

Well iMacsoontobe, you should have enough ammo to make a decision as to what suits your needs.

Thanks much Reboot!!

I do have plenty of info now.

The one on Amazon does have some negative reviews, but I guess you'll have that. Not sure why the Apple one for Macbook Air and Mini's isn't compatible, cause I would probably buy that knowing Apple would back it up. For the the first four years of owning my first iMac, I bought only Apple branded DVD's, they were like$2.50 each I think. I may go the Bestbuy route, only for the easy return factor if it doesn't fly. One of the "negatives" with the self powered seems to be needing 2 USB ports instead of one? That was according to the reviews on Amazon.

One of the "negatives" with the self powered seems to be needing 2 USB ports instead of one? That was according to the reviews on Amazon.

I see, it's the two power plug kind. From the reviews it seems that the Macs, even the MacBook Air can run with just one cable plugged in though. I have portable external HDs with the dual cable. They work fine on my Macs with one cable. Usually it's Windows laptops that need the extra power from the second port connection. If you're not going to be using it that much and can get by with taking up two ports if needed for the times that you have it plugged in, the price is great. I doubt you'll need two though with that iMac.

I doubt that. You'd have to connect the Sony to the computer probably. You need some kind of media interface on the computer to capture the analog input from the camera.

Or did you mean connect the DVD burner directly to the TV also, in which case I haven't a clue on that one, probably not though. I can't keep up with all this stuff myself. I doubt the TV would do a USB interface with the DVD player much less have burning capabilities.

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